


Bitter Clamor

by IceBlueRose



Category: Adam Lambert (Musician), American Idol RPF, Kris Allen (Musician)
Genre: Abusive Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-13
Updated: 2011-04-13
Packaged: 2017-10-18 00:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/182923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IceBlueRose/pseuds/IceBlueRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“What happened?” he asked, deliberately keeping his voice soft.</p><p>Part of him meant the obvious – what had happened earlier? Why were Kris’s ribs bruised, why’d he have a black eye? But the other part wanted to know what had happened to Kris in general. What had happened to turn Kris into a jumpy, tense man who rarely smiled and almost never returned anyone’s phone calls?</p><p>In the back of Adam’s mind, a voice that sounded disturbingly a lot like Brad whispered that he knew exactly what had happened, he just didn’t want to believe it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bitter Clamor

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aintmsbehaving](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=aintmsbehaving).



Kris hissed, wincing slightly as Adam’s fingers brushed over the tender skin surrounding his eye. The reaction had Adam’s lips hardening into a flat line and his hand clenching into a fist at his side before he forcibly uncurled his fingers.

“What happened?” he asked, deliberately keeping his voice soft.

Part of him meant the obvious – what had happened earlier? Why were Kris’s ribs bruised, why’d he have a black eye? But the other part wanted to know what had happened to Kris in general. What had happened to turn Kris into a jumpy, tense man who rarely smiled and almost never returned anyone’s phone calls?

In the back of Adam’s mind, a voice that sounded disturbingly a lot like Brad whispered that he knew exactly what had happened, he just didn’t want to believe it.

“I screwed up,” Kris said, the self-disgust in his voice evident. “Again.” He looked down. “He gets angry when I screw up.”

Adam’s eyes flashed in anger and he had to stop himself from lashing out at the closest thing. Kris didn’t need that right now.

“I’m sure you didn’t do anything wrong.”

Kris’s eyes snapped up to his. “But I did. Steve had some of his friends over and we ran out of beer and it was my job to make sure we had enough of everything.” He looked up at Adam as if this is a perfectly reasonable explanation. “I figured it wrong and that wasn’t right. It cost time.”

Fuck, this was because of beer. Kris looked like this because there wasn’t enough beer in the house?

Adam fought the urge to swear, shifting and wrapping a hand around Kris’s wrist. “Kris,” he said. “How long?”

He didn’t have to tell Kris what he meant. It was obvious in the way he brushed a hand over Kris’s ribs.

Kris looked away. “I screw up a lot.”

Adam’s eyes hardened as his gaze drifted to a picture of Kris and Steve that was sitting on the table. “That’s not what I asked.”

Letting out a breath, Kris shook his head. “I think you should go,” was what he said instead.

Adam’s stomach clenched. “Kris.”

Finally, Kris turned to look at him. “Steve is going to be back soon. Please, Adam, you should go.”

“And you think that’s okay? You think it’s okay for him to have so much control over you that you send people away because he’s on his way back? That you send me away?” Shit, that had sounded like more than just a pissed off best friend. “Kris—“

“Adam.” Kris swallowed. “I can’t—“ He cut himself off and shook his head. “Please just go.”

“No.”

Kris jerked away from Adam and pushed himself to his feet, only barely hiding the wince as he did so. He didn’t say anything as he slowly walked to the door and pulled it open, looking back at Adam.

“Please, Adam, I need you to go,” he said softly.

Adam stood and moved until he was standing in front of Kris, studying his face. “Kris...” _If he doesn’t want your help, he won’t take it. He’ll go right back to Steve even if you drag him out of here._ “You know where to find me,” he finished.

Kris smiled slightly and reached out, squeezing Adam’s arm. “I know.”

Unable to shake the feeling that he was making a huge mistake, Adam forced himself to smile back and walked out of the house.

 

~*~*~

 

The sound of the key turning in the lock less than ten minutes later caused Kris to freeze for a moment and he quickly glanced around, relaxing slightly when he saw that nothing was out of place. Relieved, he walked into the other room, a smile on his face when Steve walked in.

“Kris,” Steve said, a smile on his face. “Hi.”

Kris walked forward until he was able to wrap his arms around Steve. “Hi. Good day?”

“Oh, it was a very good day.” Steve looked down at him and slid a hand over his shoulder to the back of his neck. “Until I got here, that is.” Even as Kris paled, Steve twisted his hand into Kris’s hair, pulling his head back. “Imagine my surprise when I saw Adam walking to his car after having a visit with my slut of a boyfriend.”

“What?” Kris asked, his eyes widening in shock. He shook his head. “No, we didn’t—“

“You think I don’t see how you two always flirt and touch each other?” Steve demanded, his voice a low hiss. He yanked Kris’s head back further, ignoring Kris’s cry of pain. “Do you think winning American Idol means you’re worth something other than an easy way to earn cash and a claim to fame because someone had sex with you? You’re wrong.” Twisting his hand further, Steve used his grip to begin to shove Kris further back into the room, backhanding him hard enough that Kris fell back onto the couch.

As Kris scrambled to stand up, Steve stepped closer. “It’s time you remembered that.”

 

~*~*~

 

Adam stared at the glass of vodka for a few moments and then sighed, pushing it away. He couldn’t hold his liquor very well, had never been able to, and he wasn’t going to try and change that now. Letting out a breath, he leaned back and thought about his conversation with Kris—if it could even really be called that.

Everything in him was telling him to go back. Clenching his jaw, Adam thought of what Kris had looked like when he’d left before he shook his head.

He focused on the TV, wishing that _Velvet Goldmine_ had been enough to distract him. But for once, it hadn’t worked and he’d moved on to working on the unisex makeup line he’d started a little over a year ago and watching _Chicago_.

That was working about as well as _Velvet Goldmine_ had. Instead, he couldn’t get rid of the feeling that he’d made a huge mistake by leaving Kris at his place. It couldn’t end well, not with Steve going after Kris over stupid things like beer.

The memory brought a fresh wave of anger and Adam threw his pen across the room, feeling a bit of satisfaction at the way the pen bounced off a glass vase that his mother had given him. Kris didn’t deserve to be treated that way. Hell, Adam wasn’t even sure what it was that made it possible for someone to treat Kris that way when they actually knew him. There was a reason Adam had called him the nicest guy in the world in an old interview.

A soft knock on the door jerked him out of his thoughts and he frowned, trying to remember if Cassidy had said anything about stopping by with Brad and Alisan but he was sure that they’d decided on going dancing. His mother was having a girls night and Allison was out of town, doing a concert. And Kris...

Shaking his head, he moved to the door when there was another knock, letting out a breath as he looked through the peephole. His eyes widened when he saw Kris on the other side and he immediately flipped the lock, yanking the door open.

Kris turned from where he’d been studying the wall, taking off his sunglasses and beanie as he did. Adam’s breath hitched at the sight that greeted him.

The skin around Kris’s eye and over his cheekbone had darkened to an ugly purple already. His bottom lip was swollen and split and Adam was pretty sure that he’d seen a small cut on Kris’s hand. Without saying a word, he reached out and gently pulled him inside, shutting and locking the door as soon as he could before he led Kris to the couch. As they walked, Adam made a note of the way Kris limped, something he hadn’t been doing earlier, and the way he winced as he slowly lowered himself to the couch, one arm wrapped around his stomach.

A feeling of dread spread throughout him as he thought of the possible reasons for that and he swallowed, pushing the thought away.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Kris finally said, his voice quiet.

“You’re always welcome here, you know that,” Adam told him. He paused. “Why didn’t you just use your key?”

Kris shifted, his breath hitching and wincing as he did so. “I wasn’t sure I could.”

Adam closed his eyes slowly and shook his head before he opened his eyes again and stared at Kris. He reached out and wrapped a hand around Kris’s wrist, the way he always did. “What happened?”

Eyes locked on Adam’s fingers, Kris swallowed and slowly let out a breath. “Steve saw you leaving,” he said. Adam’s stomach twisted at that and his grip tightened slightly. “He said...he said that he wasn’t stupid and he knew exactly what we’d been doing.”

“He thinks that we slept together.”

Kris nodded. “He said that he knew...” Kris trailed off, his breath hitching.

“Kris—“

“He said that he knew I enjoyed spreading my legs for you because I’m a slut and worthless, that no one would want to be with me unless it was as a claim to fame because then they could say they slept with the American Idol. He said I needed to be reminded of what a slut I was and then he...he...” Kris shook his head and looked down and Adam deliberately kept his grip gentle though what he really wanted was to rage and scream, throw things, and then he wanted to storm out and find Steve so that he could kill him.

“You’re not going back.” Adam tilted Kris’s face up to his. “Kris, don’t go back.”

Kris shook his head. “My stuff is in the car.” He swallowed. “He didn’t even try to hide the keys or anything. He doesn’t think I’d ever leave but—“ Kris cut himself off and shook his head again and, God, Adam hated seeing him like this. He wanted to see Kris laughing again, taking great pleasure in teasing him about something stupid he’d done. He really wanted a chance to be the friend he should have been rather than acting the way he had been, ranting at Brad, Cassidy, Alisan, even Drake, that suddenly Kris was ignoring him because he had a new boyfriend. They’d all tried in their own way to reassure him except Brad who had bluntly told him to stop acting like a fucking 13 year old girl and go see what was actually going on with Kris.

If he had done that sooner, maybe this could have been avoided.

He smiled at Kris, hoping that this could be the first step in making things right between them. “The guest room is all yours for as long as you want it.”

For the first time in a long time, Adam watched as a smile that resembled Kris’s old smiles spread across his face.

Adam leaned over and pressed a kiss to Kris’s forehead.

Things weren’t okay but he had a feeling that they would be.


End file.
